Review: Charlie Bartlett

Anton Yelchin once again comes of age and overcomes absent-dad issues. As in “Fierce People,” virginity is lost and drugs are ingested. Here this up-and-coming actor is the title rich kid. A misfit of privilege in a public high school, he makes himself the most popular kid by running a pharmacy and offering therapy for his classmates. “People like you are the reason people like me need medication,” reads the t-shirt of a student waiting in line for treatment. Charlie recruits the school ass-kicker, who shares: “I kept getting my ass kicked by people like me.” Writer Gustin Nash offers an apology for adolescent preoccupation with popularity. Charlie terminates his session with the student body with this send-off: “Stop listening to me.” Jon Poll directs with an upscale Sundance style that gets strong turns by Robert Downey Jr. as the put-upon principal, Kat Dennings (“The 40 Year-Old Virgin”) as his cool daughter and Hope Davis as Charlie’s dithery mom. 97m. (Bill Stamets)